Posted
by
samzenpuson Wednesday January 23, 2013 @09:22PM
from the trying-it-out dept.

Zothecula writes "NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have begun practicing satellite refueling in space on a test bed outside the International Space Station (ISS). In a series of tests that started on January 14 and are scheduled to continue until the 25th, the two space agencies are using the Robotic Refueling Module (RRM) and Canada's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, robot to carry out simulated refueling operations. The purpose of these tests is to develop refueling methods aimed at extending the life of satellites and reducing the amount of space debris orbiting the Earth."

Space exploration's rapid advancement is only made more viable if we give up this hokey notion of manned flights. Sure, one day suspended animation will be more of a scientific certainty, but these bots can explore and make ready for human exploration a host of off-planet locations.

That would be so badass, if there were like these rolling tankers, with the special hose and fittings so you could just drive up next to one, right, like the fighter planes do, and then refuel and just keep rolling.

I'd never stop, except to pee and get more cans of pringles and 2 litre bottles of Coke. Hell, if I had enough empty pringle cans and 2 litre bottles of Coke, I wouldn't have to even stop to pee! And if you lived on pringles and coke you wouldn't have to do anything BUT pee, so you'd have that going for you.

I get pretty ambivalent about moderating; I get mod points and half the time they expire or go unused. I'm sincerely pissed I have no mod points right now for you.
And not just because some other jackhole moderator modded your +1 funny *down*.
Whatever happened to metamoderation? I feel like I haven't seen links in a while for it.

Genius. The next step is fitting a Coke tank and a hose to feed it to you. Maybe even some pre-chewing of the pringles... Then you wouldn't even need to open the window, there'd be a similar hookup to the fuel tank.

Already been done -- Anyone remember that 'olestra' stuff? Inverted-molecule fat for fat-free pringles? Stuff died a dismal market death when word came out that it tended to cause 'rectal leakage'. Or, as Dave Barry said: "Warning! BUTT DRAINO!"